Now a recent Reuters report quotes people in the know who claim that the list of external candidates has been narrowed down to about five, out of which two are Elop and Mulally. There’s also a list of internal people who Microsoft considers, among which former Skype CEO Tony Bates — now in charge of the company’s business development after the Skype deal — and Satya Nadella, Executive Vice President for Cloud and Enterprise.

Despite initially having about 40 people in mind, the list has been now narrowed down to about a dozen, claims the report; unfortunately, the above mentioned sources couldn’t name other people that might be considered.

While Microsoft or Nokia didn’t comment, Ford’s spokesperson said: “There is no change from what we announced last November. Alan remains fully focused on continuing to make progress on our One Ford plan. We do not engage in speculation.”